Urban and commercial wireless network channels can be severely affected by fading and interference problems. To overcome these problems, and to achieve desirable system throughputs while supporting mission critical data and voice applications, advanced signal processing techniques are often employed at wireless communication devices. However, those techniques, such as filtering and equalization techniques, can consume significant power resources at a device.
Many organizations, such as law enforcement, firefighting, and military organizations, employ fleets of wireless devices and their associated personnel that must be capable of performing reliably at various incidence locations in a wireless network. Such organizations often direct mission critical responses to an incidence location based on the distance between a present location of a device and the incidence location. However, if other parameters such as the available power of devices and anticipated power requirements of devices are not considered, the devices and their associated personnel may not be able to respond effectively at the incidence location.
There is therefore a need for an improved method and apparatus for determining whether a device is suitable for operating at an incidence location.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.